I was in a group text with my friends recently and they mentioned a 421-piece Lego set that cost $59. I wasn’t sure if that was a lot of money or not for a set of that size. I figure, if you’re going to get a Lego set, you’re probably only going to build it once — as opposed to getting assorted bricks and building something freehand, then taking it apart and building something different. Anyway, the value of that aforementioned Lego set depends, to me, on how long it takes to build it — you get more value if it takes six hours than if it takes one hour, because you’re spending less per hour on something you enjoy.

We then transitioned into talking about handheld video game systems, since I’ve been wanting one for a while. After some consideration, I ended up buying this one. It comes with over 4000 games, and it cost me $84. That’s hundreds of hours of entertainment, or mere pennies per hour. So why was I vacillating on it so much? It’s a great value (in my mind).

I also collect certain Funko Pop figurines that interest me. Each one costs between $10 and $20, and they don’t do anything except sit on my mantelpiece. For the same price as the handheld game system, I could have bought about five Funkos, and the value would be tremendously lower because once I’ve seen them and put them on the mantelpiece all I do is look at them, and there’s only so long you can look at something.

When Cane-iac originally announced that they were going out of business (they have since sold the business to someone else, so it’s not actually closed), I searched their clearance items and spent $75 on four implements. As far as quality spanking implements go, that’s a good deal. Compare that to this paddle from Kink Works (one of my favorite implement vendors, and they are not paying me to say that) — we paid less for it because we bought it at a vendor fair, but I don’t remember the exact cost. However, if you want it from their Etsy shop, it’ll cost you $97. Given how much fun I’ve had with that paddle, I’d say that $97 would be a great value — a better value than the $75 I spent at Cane-iac for implements that I use much more rarely. And I have a custom-made London Tanners strap that I love that cost me over $200, which, while being quite a hit to my credit card balance, I still found to be great value because of how much I enjoy using it and how often it gets used. And if you want to talk value, the Walmart spoon cost $4 and I’ve gotten over a decade of enjoyment out of it.

One other set of comparisons: my TSA Precheck cost me just under $80 — about the same as four implements from Cane-iac. The value that I get out of it, though, is way higher — not having to take my stuff out of my bag at airport security is so nice, especially since I usually travel with two laptops, an external battery pack, and an external monitor. It’s not even about the speed of security anymore; I’m paying for the convenience. Five years of Precheck is a great value at $80 (for me), but I resisted buying it for a long time because I thought $80 was too much — yet I gladly paid $84 for a handheld gaming system, and I’m more than willing to pay $200 for a weekend pass to a spanking party (whereas some people will wait longer and end up paying more for the same thing). But a night at the local dungeon costs $35, so is a spanking party really worth six dungeon nights? Hell yes! I like going to the dungeon but I like spanking parties more. However, some people might feel the opposite way, so to them the value is inverted. And, on top of that — I spend about $100 on groceries a week, so is a spanking party worth two weeks of groceries? Given what I get out of it, of course it is, but it still feels like I’m spending more money than I actually am.

So ultimately what is value? In this case, it’s just an attribute you assign to things you buy (or want to buy) that helps you decide if it’s going to be worth it or not. And it changes from time to time; when I first put the handheld gaming system on my Amazon wishlist I thought $100 was too much to spend — on something that clearly has value to me. When the price came down to $84, I decided the value was good enough. But would I give up my cell phone for 2.5 months to go to a spanking party? No, even though it’s the same amount of money. My cell phone simply has more value than a spanking party.

I could keep this up forever, but you get the idea. And since I have no good way to end this post, here’s a meme: